Retailers Can Benefit from IVR Solutions

Retailers face tough challenges to stay competitive as they face stiff competition, tight margins and seasonal spikes in demand. They are under constant pressure to find new ways to increase the productivity and efficiency of their businesses, while at the same time reducing operational costs.

One way for retailers to get a up leg up on their competition is taking advantage of hosted interactive voice response (IVR) and call center solutions. According to a White Paper (News - Alert) from Angel.com, hosted IVR and call center solutions can not only enhance the cost effectiveness and efficiency of traditional phone-based customer service operations, but also maximize the productivity of many aspects of a retailer’s business. These include marketing, inventory management, and sales/revenue generation.

The White Paper, titled “Driving Quality, Not Costs in Retail,” noted that most organizations take great lengths to customize to design of their website to leverage the key elements of the in-store experience. However, the phone experience is all too commonly characterized by a generic voice, callers being left on hold or greeted by busy signals – leaving a poor impression.

By and large, the phone represents a long-neglected sales and support channel for retailers, the paper noted.

Using an intelligent IVR solution, such as those available from Angel.com, can go a long way toward improving the customer experience. A typical IVR application features a greeting by a corporate spokesperson or other sound element identifying the company. The company’s phone number can also be mentioned, as a branding element.

An IVR solution can take advantage of the time a customer spends on hold to promote the company’s products or provide other information, and even administer customer surveys that can help evaluate products and services offered. This time utilization can reduce the perceived hold time while giving the organization valuable marketing data.

The paper also noted that IVR solutions can help retailers navigate the inevitable spikes and dips in business throughout the year, by implementing a speech-enabled and touch-tone phone system allowing customers to resolve basic inquiries simply, without tying up call agents. And, the IVR solution can be easily customized to seasonal campaigns or special promotions.

Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

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A hardware- or software-based computer system that enables incoming callers to interact with voice prompts or verbal commands....more

Internet Protocol (IP)

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IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more